Anemone II by Kate Livingstone

Anemone II (2017)

"This painting has a textured surface. "Paint is a sensually rich medium and through its manipulation in two dimensional space, I navigate its seductive material qualities. A nuanced language of layering techniques involves mixing paint mediums to create surfaces which glow with a luminous intensity and overwhelm with an intricacy of pattern."

The paintings of Kate Livingstone are distinctively striking; vibrating hues and controlled patterns are all-embracing. Her visual language verges on the obsessive, reminiscent of the tantalisingly intricate efforts of James Siena. Livingstone's work however, uniquely oscillates between tight, structured foreground and loose, intuitive, and brilliantly coloured patches which seemingly glow from behind. Rivers and eruptions of energetic hues swarm the canvas, intermingling, and embracing each other, while the structural pattern in the fore tames and gives an illusion of depth. The bridge between intuition and deliberation is evident in these paintings and the clash of raw materiality and precise form react extraordinarily on each canvas. The resulting imagery explores the possibility of colour and mark-making with dazzling bravura.